Battle of Bemis Heights

The Battle of Bemis Heights (7 October 1777) was the second battle fought at Saratoga during the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War. In this battle, the British assault on the American fortifications at Bemis Heights was repelled, and the Americans chased the British from their camp after capturing the Balcarres and Breymann Redoubts. Ten days later, the British surrendered.

In early October, having realized that reinforcements would not be arriving, General John Burgoyne decided to attack the entrenched American positions on Bemis Heights. The British were outnumbered two-to-one, and their attacks would falter and fail. Major John Dyke Acland ordered a bayonet charge against the American right flank, but he was shot in both legs, and many of his British grenadiers also went down. Enoch Poor's men then advanced to capture Acland and several British artillerymen. On the American left flank, General Daniel Morgan instructed sharpshooter Timothy Murphy to kill the British general Simon Fraser, who, after Murphy fired two close misses, was shot in the stomach and mortally wounded. Burgoyne ordered a withdrawal, but the aide sent to deliver the message, Francis Clerke, was killed by Murphy's fourth shot. The battle cost Burgoyne 400 men, including the capture of most of the grenadiers' command and six of the ten artillery pieces.

After quarreling with General Horatio Gates, Benedict Arnold was removed from command, but he spurred his horse towards the gunfire to join the fight. Arnold then led the Americans in a furious assault on the British and Germans, who were falling back. The Americans first assaulted the Balcarres Redoubt, where most of the retreating soldiers had taken up a new position, but the redoubt was held. Arnold then decided to assist Learned with his assault on the Breymann Redoubt, and Morgan's men circled around the rear of the redoubt. In the furious battle, Breymann was killed; Arnold had his horse shout out from under him and was again shot in the leg, having previously been shot in the same leg at the Battle of Quebec less than two years earlier. The capture of the Breymann Redoubt exposed the British camp, and an attempt by Hessians to recapture the redoubt before nightfall failed.

On the morning of 8 October, Burgoyne withdrew to his initial positions, and he held a council of war to propose terms of surrender, having found his army surrounded. After several days, the Americans and British signed the capitulation, which stipulated that the British army would be conveyed to Boston, where they would sail back to Europe. On 17 October, Burgoyne surrendered his army to General Gates, and the prisoners were given full honors of war. However, the Continental Congress refused to agree to the British evacuation after Burgoyne refused to give up his officers' names to prevent their return to the war, and the British and German "Convention Army" was interned in Virginia and Pennsylvania until the war's end.